5 comments about First Steps Sketching and Drawing (First Step Series).

1. This is an excellent book for absolute beginners who are not sure if they can draw a ballon on a string but want to. It is a very easy read that encourages you to pick up paper and pencil and start drawing now. The instructions are simple to follow and include technique for drawing that I have found missing in other titles. I just wish it were longer/covered more techniques AND included "other stuff" like how to keep your sketches from smearing in your sketch book, care of pencils, composition, etc. I suppose if it covered everything it wouldn't just be a "First Steps" book.



2. Good instructions for detail on lots of different subjects, nature, animals, structures, people. Very well done



3. No real advice is offered on drawing. Everything is too basic. If you're about to take or have already taken a beginners' course, this book is a waste of your precious money. You know already what she attempts to show in this volume.
   Instructions are too vague, nothing you can really follow though in the hope of becoming better at drawing. Her loose style and broken up, incomplete explanantions are enough to make you want to quit. She never goes in depth, never reaches full thourough mastery of any subject within the realm of drawing. Light and shadows probably don't matter much for her, she gives no detail to enable one to move beyond shape or form.
   In summery, this book teaches nothing, demonstrates nothing, just rambles vaguely here and there, never going into any part of drawing in depth.
   I'd rather recommand: The art of pencil drawing by Ernest W. Watson, a book which gives great advice with beautiful demonstration drawings, simple yet clear, concise & to the point.



4. This book is not really a drawing instruction, but it has a lot of practical tips. It's easy to follow, pictoral and it contains no wordy explanation which will confuse the readers even before they begin to draw!)

   The writer gave examples of 'loose drawing' in various themes, a good start for drawing from life.




5. This book appealed to me in its straight forward manner of presenting drawing to a beginner. Johnson has a chatty way of explaining her techniques that makes the excercises fun to do. She has included a broad spectrum of subject matter including animals, buildings, people, etc. I found the book easy to follow and very helpful and would recommend it for any artist's library.

1 comments about Fundamentals of Lighting.

1. I received my order earlier than expected and they managed to send two of my other books in the same bundle.

5 comments about Sourcebook of Modern Furniture, Third Edition.

1. This is the best compendium of pictures and details about the Modern Furniture movement!



2. The third edition of Jerryll Habegger and Joseph H. Osman's SOURCEBOOK OF MODERN FURNITURE should be on the reference shelves of ANY serious interior design collection. Appearing in its third revised edition, SOURCEBOOK provides one of the most authoritative guides to furniture and lighting designs of the 20th and 21st centuries in print, pairing color photos with features of works by hundreds of notable designers. Photos arranged by type of furniture or fixture make it simple for quick look-ups, while lists of suppliers and indexes of designers and manufacturers provide invaluable cross-referencing.



3. did not someone write that they are coming out with a new edition in fall 2004? this is the only problem with this edition. it is not updated. soon to be resolved it seems.



4. As predicted, the 3rd edition is OFF THE HOOK!!! The 3rd edition, published in 2005, has close to 700 new entries. Nearly half of the photos are in color and the authors have included web site information for manufacturers. This latest edition is in the collection of prominent museums and academic institutions across the globe, especially universities which have significant design and architecture programs. This is certainly a must have edition for the intellectually astute connoisseur of furniture and design.
   
   BTW, many of the listed reviews are referring to the 2nd edition which is now 10 years old!!! Check to be sure which edition other reviewers are referring to before making a purchase decision...you wouldn't want to miss out!!



5. I was disappointed with the book and returned it. Nothing by Robsjohn Gibbings. Nothing by Harvey Probber. Only a single piece by Wormley. Only two by Finn Juhl. Instead, the selection seems weighted heavily toward austere Italian designs of metal and glass, esp. those produced in the 1960s and later. I did not expect the editors to show such a lack of interest in wood. And given the book's definitive-sounding title, I did not expect them to adopt such an rigid and uninteresting definition of "modern."

2 comments about Architecture in Japan (Architecture (Taschen)).

1. This book illustrates good new japan architects, togheter with new projects from the oldests. Good Projects, good photos.



2. Enjoyable book, most of the architecture I'd seen before since im an architecture major, but its a nice book for the price.

No comments about China Style: Exteriors Interiors Details (Icons).

2 comments about Eero Saarinen, 1910-1961: A Structural Expressionist (Basic Art).

1. This is an alright intro. book (and reasonable at $10.00) but it almost brings up more questions than it answers. It is a good intro. to Saarinen and his major works, thoguh I had hoped for a bit more overall....



2. This volume is part of Taschen's series of monographs on the the Twentieth Century's greatest architects. This book follows the Series usual format by beginning with an introductory biographical section. It then moves onto Saarinen's most famous works such as the TWA Terminal, Dulles Intenational and Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Each building receives a few pages of description and several full page photographs. This is all done in 96 well presented pages.
   
   Eero Saarinen was on the leading lights of American Mid-Century Modernism. If you are interested in the period, you must become familiar with Eero Saarinen's work. This is a reasonably priced volume and a great introduction to the works of one of the Twentieth Century's greatest masters. Highly recommended.

4 comments about Architectural Graphic Standards Student Edition: An Abridgement of the 9th Edition.

1. I am a fourth year architecture student and I use this book every semester. I keep it with me at all times. It is the perfect design handbook. If you don't have it, You need it!



2. The book was in great condition as expected. It was delivered during the expected time frame, but it was later rather than sooner. I purchase frequently from amazon and I recieve consistently good service from them.



3. Loaded with tons of reference data all good for Architects.
   Font is a small



4. This book is one of the best reference books an architect will ever use. It contains the necessary information for the beginning and advanced architect. Inside the 568 pages in this book one will find from the most basic to the highly complex architectural graphics. The book provides reference for the various arcchitectural plans such as the floor plan, elevation and perspective drawings. No other reference material can surpass the amount of information provided in this excellent book.

5 comments about Architectural Research Methods.

1. This is a great book that fills a gap in architectural education. it tries to cover a wide range of issues. The effort is appreciated and to a great extend successful



2. This is a good overall text for anyone working in or towards a graduate degree in architecture or landscape architecture.



3. As a graduate student taking my first official course in research methods, I was disappointed. The language and structure of this book could have been made a lot easier to follow. I would have appreciated, for example, more frequent subheadings and listing of points. Because of the lack of, the book is difficult to skim or pick and choose sections to read; expect to read thoroughly. Some of the examples in the book were questionable -especially the chapter on experimental and quasi-experimental research. The frequent diagrams were also lacking in clarity. I think that the text could have been half as long and still conveyed the same amount of information. Redundancy aside, I did (with much caffeinated effort) gain a broad understanding of several research strategies and tactics. The book is not a comprehensive guidebook for conducting research based on particular research methods; it is merely a broad introduction or clarification of various strategies. However, it frequently suggests comprehensive texts for further reading if you are so inclined.



4. I found this book to be excellent: comprehensive and approachable, eclectic and interdisciplinary. It should save any student, researcher or instructor much time and can serve as a text book and/or a comprehensive reference manual. It also adds to the body of knowledge by freshly demonstrating the application of the research methods of many other disciplines in the specific context of architecture (including many cases and examples), all within a nice, logical, unifying philosophical framework.



5. The text is relevent for those interested in "Evidence based architectural design". It is excellent for both a beginning researcher in acadamia or an experienced practitioner involved with architecture research. It provides a broad research background as well as specific application to architecture. It is well organized and usable as an office reference or classroom text. It is written with jargon and graphics familiar to architects.

5 comments about Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape.

1. For Westchester County history buffs, this is a well documented book that is easy to read and informative. If you've attended Kings College in the early years as I have, you will appreciate the section on the now non-existant Briarcliff Lodge.



2. Those who value the Hudson Valley's unique history and beauty must use this book to fight for restoration, preservation and conservation of the human landscape of our precious River!



3. If you have a love of the Hudson River Valley and you wonder what happened to structures you've heard about, but can't find, then you'll enjoy this book. I was also fascinated to learn of buildings I never knew existed and what is being done to save some derelict buildings still standing that are near collapse. This is a very well researched book too. I'd call this a savory read if old structures or the Hudson River shoreline is of interest to you.



4. Ruins (mainly abandoned buildings): eyesores or "romantic embodiments of a historical past"? The authors, in this superbly written and magnificently illustrated book, argue passionately for the latter, and have chosen 85 sites found in the Hudson Valley between Albany and Yonkers to prove their point. Old mansions, mills, manufacturing plants, railroad stations, even Sing Sing prison are described in historical detail and lovingly photographed; scores of black and white photos and a center section of nearly 20 color prints accompany the text. And it's the text that really makes this a stand-out book in the field of local history: the historical sketches for most of the sites are thorough and elaborate in scope. In tracing these ruins of the Hudson Valley, which are many and varied, the authors also trace the history of "ruin appreciation" itself, from early artistic projections to modern debates over urban renewal vs. preservation. This is local history at its best.



5. This book is chock full of information about abandonded places(obviously within the Hudson Valley Region). I honestly wish there were some more detailed photographs of some of these places, but i imagine i might be able to find them on the internet somewhere.Dont get me wrtong There are alot of photographs of the locations and places, and a color plate section in the center but they are like brief narriations of places that could be shown in so much more detail. I can honestly recommend this book to anyone interested in urban decay, preservation of old places, or interested in those abandonded places from times past. Urban Explorers might also find this book of some use as well.

3 comments about Vitruvius: Ten Books on Architecture.

1. Th Ten Books are a must for every architecture student. I must confess I did not read it all at the time of my first year...But Vitruvius' masterpiece on architecture is definitely a must read.



2. First off, I should note that I find this version of Vitruvius far more useful than many others, especially in the clearly noted diagrams, explanations of measurement units, and so forth. The editor and translators have done a good job of this aspect of Vitruvius Pollio's work.

   However, the translators appear to have taken a few liberties with the text. First, since Vitruvius is a historical work as well as a canon of Classicism, an honest modern-day translation must relate not only to its period, but also to subsequent periods in order to be understood in terms of the nearer to present and Vitruvius' own time. The translators' choice of ridding the text of the translation "the Orders" for Vitruvius' original choice of "genus" is bad enough, but when you observe that this translation has been rendered as "type" instead, it has the potential of blending in with unintended references in the text to type as well as being confused with common modern/Modernist discursions into what type is. The translators should have indicated their theories about what they thought would be a correct interpretation of the Roman word "genus" at the beginning of their notes, not by making a deliberate decision to diverge from the customary content of the text.

   Second, this translation appears to fail to take into account some aspects of military culture which have influenced the text. Vitruvius was a military man and although he adopted the linguistic style of Cicero in some respects (who has been accused of using two words in the place of one or even none), sometimes a distinction he makes, albeit slight, is worth noting, especially in the context of his role in the Roman military and in the context of subtle gradations of meaning being just as notable as subtle gradations in style and form.

   Third, and most telling, the translators and editors have missed an opportunity to note something very useful in Vitruvius, and that is that although he understood the what of the Orders, he may not have understood the why of the Orders. In some cases, he goes to great lengths to wave hands over certain aspects of the Orders, even devolving into a Ciceronian overuse of words and dense prose, in order to pull a Wizard of Oz-like "pay no attention to the unknowns behind this concept". The translators note the fuzziness, but they don't begin to question the nature of it and as a result, they may inadvertently paint Vitruvius in a little bit better light than he may actually deserve.

   Otherwise, it is a well-rendered translation, although for serious readers and researchers it should be balanced with at least one other translation, such as Morgan's translation.




3. As a Penn State first year architecture student I have been studying Vitruvius line by line. It is the most inspirational, thought provoking, and interesting book I have ever read. I even hold my own Vitruvian study sessions to review the material and relate all of Vitruvius's topics to the outside world not even related to architecture. If you are at all interested in architecture, construction, philosophy, or if you just want a different type of book to read I urge you to give this a try. It is truly a remarkable book that has revolutioned and standardized many architectural details.